the.com/elastin
The protein that lets your skin snap back, until one day it just doesn't.
means A stretchy structural protein in connective tissue that lets skin, lungs, arteries, and ligaments stretch and then recoil back to shape.
from Coined in the 1800s from Latin/French 'elastic' (itself traced back to Greek 'elastikos', meaning propulsive or driving) plus the chemist's suffix '-in' used to name proteins and other isolated substances — so the name is literally 'the springy stuff,' tagged like any other protein once biochemists pulled it out of tissue and gave it a label.
- lifespan
- lasts decades, barely gets replaced after puberty
- stretch factor
- can stretch 150 percent and recoil fully
- decline cause
- sun and time degrade it, not just age
- found in
- skin, lungs, arteries, and vocal cords alike